Meething the Legendary Theif
by night-rainbow27
Summary: Story #5. Sparks fly everywhere when Luna meets the Legendary Bandit, Yoko Kurama. One-shot.


**Disclaimer:**I don't own anything that i can't afford! I can hardly afford the series DVDs, let alone the characters.

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Luna's POV

I was face to face with one of the most powerful demons from Spirit World. One would mistake him for a Toguro brother, if they didn't know there were only two of them and both are dead. He looked a lot alike the Younger Toguro, with big muscled arms and chest that looked as if all he did in his free time was push-ups. Even his face resembled the Younger Toguro's, with a hard jaw, shallow cheeks and deep, dark eyes that held no emotion what so ever.

We – that is, me, Hiei, Yusuke, Kuwabara and, surprisingly enough, Yoko Kurama – were fighting this demon. But to no avail. The worst part was, we didn't even know what powers he had. He had defeated us every time with apparent ease, but no visible Spirit Energy, although we could all feel it. And it was an intense feeling. He had to be an A class demon.

We were all so concentrating so intensely, that nobody spoke. Even Yusuke, with his big mouth that he almost never kept shut tight was now sealed, his face contorting in what I suspected was frustration.

I had to take over from Iris because she lost a lot of Spirit Energy. I watched the whole thing happen and it still amazes me how he was simply immune to her. She tried everything she could. She tried to read his thoughts; they were completely blank, probably doing his best to keep them that way. She tried to search his memories or previous thoughts or anything at all in his mind that might help them to win this fight, he built impenetrable walls around them; she couldn't access anything. I am positively sure that this is the first time it happened to her that she couldn't access that person's memory or mind at all, what so ever.

She tried to create an illusion in his head – and although I didn't see that, I saw him closing his eyes. Iris had hers tightly shut also, but I could feel her body, my body, fidgeting, sometimes trembling, other times making a sudden movement. With her eyes closed, she looked like she was having a most terrible nightmare. The demon however, looked relaxed, unperturbed.

I think this was the first time that she was unable to do that. I could feel her anger, and I knew she didn't like that at all.

Finally, she did something I didn't think she had the power to. I heard her say one word, and I just watched to see what she had in mind. _Objects… _She could control objects with her mind. Actually, I should put it differently. Any lifeless object was at her command if she ordered it to. But I knew that. I saw through her eyes everything within her line of sight and I couldn't pinpoint on any object that she could use. There was only the draw, raw earth. I would never have guessed…

I don't think Iris herself knew she could do that, but she was at wits end. I knew that controlling objects with her mind required a lot less energy than working and manipulating people, but what I saw then awed me speechless.

Her body was trembling, with apparent fury, but I knew better. It was frustration and impatience that drove her to this point. She raised her arms in the air, and suddenly the earth started quaking. It shook so hard, I thought it was going to split in half. The others backed away, looking – for the first time – truly afraid. I knew them enough to know they weren't afraid of her hurting them by mistake, because Iris had complete control. They were afraid of the unknown.

"What the hell…?" I heard Yusuke whisper in awe. The others remained silent. Kuwabara had his mouth hanging open, his Spirit Sword barely staying in his numb hand. Hiei was on his guard, his eyes narrowed to slits. Kurama, on the other hand, was frowning deeply – whether in concentration or concern, I couldn't tell – and his eyes were wide.

Iris took no notice in any of this and gave it all she had on this one shot. The earth was shaking immensely, being catalyzed by Iris's powerful emotions. Then, right under my eyes as well as everybody else's, a fiery circle formed around him. It was about 10 feet in diameter and it grew redder and redder with each fleeting moment. The demon only smirked, and stayed where he was, as if this was a child's game. Iris gave him a venomous glare and suddenly pushed her hands down as if she was pumping air into a tire. The circle around the demon erupted and he disappeared out of sight.

Iris's back straightened and walked over to the circle. There was a whole, and I could've sworn I could feel a hot breeze coming from inside of it. It was too deep for me to see anything at all.

_What did you _do_?_ I asked her in awe. I've never seen her this powerful before, and yet, she had had complete control.

_I sent him down to the fiery pits of Hell, _she answered in a tone very much unlike her own and I understood. She used her powers to dig a whole until down to the _center of the Earth_. I could hardly wrap my mind around it. That's why the circle had a fiery outline.

Iris sighed heavily and let her face relax. She thought it was over. I thought so too. But she had no idea how wrong she was.

Not until few minutes afterward, when they wanted to leave, relieved and victorious when… they heard a familiar laugh behind them.

"I must admit," he said, "You almost got me." then his voice turned mocking and I could feel hot, boiling angel surging through her body. Our body. "Too bad fire doesn't affect me whatsoever."

_Damn it!_ She screamed in rage in her head. _Exactly what I planned to do he had to be immune to!_

I knew what I had to do. I knew she gave it her all, and trying any more from now on would be down-right dangerous and reckless. There was absolutely no way I was going to let her use her Life Energy, no matter how stubborn she was.

_Iris,_ I called to her, hoping dearly that she wasn't too distracted to hear me. She wasn't, and I felt her paying attention to my words, waiting. I continued. _Let me take over. You used up all your Spirit Energy. If you push yourself any further, you might collapse._

_I'm not _weak! She shot at me angrily.

I kept my voice even and composed, trying to talk some sense into her, even though her comment hurt nonetheless. _I never said that. But what I _did_ say is that you used up all your energy. How do you expect to fight an A class demon with just your fists?_

She didn't say anything to that. Then, I heard her sigh heavily. A sign of resignation. She accepted my terms and closed her eyes.

_But first, _I continued, and she was confused by my interruption, _I need you to give a message to the others._ She listened intently. _Tell them to be prepared for my signal. Since they all tried to attack individually and it didn't work, a group attack should do the trick, no matter how strong he is_.

She pondered briefly on that and accepted. She sent the message to each of the team members and they nodded.

Then the changing process started immediately, and a whirlpool of wind twirled around her almost as if embracing her. The wind was so powerful that it swept up everything around her body and completely masked her from the outside.

Although I would never admit this to anymore, even Iris, it was the sweetest feeling, being in control again. Although I loved Iris dearly, it was extremely inconvenient and took me some getting used to being present only in mind. To not be able to speak to people around me, but just observe. To not be able to do...anything at all unless me and my "host" came to agree on it. It made me feel weak and somewhat defenseless, being just a spirit in the back of a person's mind.

But all that changed when I was in charge. I threw my head back and let a triumphant smile break on my lips as I felt the power of the wind, my Spirit Energy wash through me as a cool, yet strong spring breeze. The wind died down suddenly at the simply command of my thought and I couldn't help not to smirk.

And that is where I was now. Facing that demon.

Yoko Kurama however was another story, yet similar. Kurama himself tried different methods, like the Death Seed (which simply evaporated when it touched his body), his Rose Whip (that didn't have more effect than the Seed), as well as summoning some extremely poisonous plans from the depths of Spirit World.

The demon blocked or stopped them with ease, almost as if he was bored. Along with him, Yusuke, Hiei and Kuwabara also tried their weapons and nothing worked. Hiei, however, hasn't tried the Dragon of the Darkness Flame. Something told me that he was saving it for a better time, whenever that will come. Kurama, however, ran out of Spirit Energy and looked extremely bloody as his attacks were redirected back at him.

I never met his alter-ego, but I heard quite a bit for me to dislike him even before I saw him face-to-face. His cockiness, his arrogance, his ego, his selfishness, his greed for other people's possessions… after all, he was a big-shot thief back then. I chuckled. Ignorance goes a long way. All of these were his downfall, along with one little mistake…

I shook my head, and looked at Kurama again. One moment, he was there, looking rather tired, but determined nonetheless as he was clutching a particular deep gash on his arm, then when I look back at the demon – who was, to my annoyance, smiling pleasantly – and then I looked back at Kurama. I kept a close watch on him especially, because he was the most hurt out of all of us, and I knew Iris would want to know how he's doing.

But next thing I knew, Kurama wasn't there anymore. In his place was a strong and imposing looking demon, with long, silver hair and golden eyes that might actually look pleasant if he wasn't glaring at the demon in front of us. He also had a pair of fluffy-looking ears sticking out form behind his long silvery bangs and a tail looking strikingly like one of a fox. And then I remembered that Yoko Kurama was a fox-demon, and that he could turn into a Spirit Fox with seven tails at will.

He was wearing simple, white pants and a shirt that barely covered up his muscled chest. I looked away, and hoped that he proved to be strong enough to beat this demon.

And here is where we were now. Scattered and bloody, facing the unknown. When I my gaze locked with the demon's, Iris snarled under her breath. The demon was actually smiling pleasantly, as if this was a high school reunion. His nonchalant attitude angered me too.

Who was he, anyway? What was the point of all this? Is he just another demon in search of a "good fight?" Yusuke was famous around here, after all. He was able to defeat the Younger Toguro brother, one of the most feared demons. Was he working for somebody? if that was the case, this would be the perfect time to start worrying. If _he_ was causing us this much trouble, what will we do against a potential boss of his, who most likely is stronger?

But I didn't dwell on the thought for long. A movement caught my eye and I tensed automatically. I studied him closely; his hand moved the slightest bit to the left.

I sighed in frustration, already tired of this game, although I (personally) just joined the fight not long ago.

I started walking toward him. Glaring at him with all my might, my feet stomping over the dusty ground, it felt more of a battle march than a walk. This apparently wasn't a wise choice. Right in front of my eyes, he shot a huge fire blast at me. I was caught off guard, and it was too fast for me to block it, but I was certainly capable to if I would've been concentrating enough.

It all happened too fast: the demon shot the fire blast, Yoko Kurama appeared the immediate moment right in front of me – close enough so that when his tail twitched it brushed my bare legs – and he conjured an odd plant, that _definitely _looked carnivorous, to appear in front of the blast.

It exploded in an instant, thick, grayish smoke that had a sickly smell came out of the place where the plant stood less than a second ago before.

The way he launched himself in front of me…it was as if he was willing to sacrifice himself if he hadn't been fast enough to summon the plant and it would've hit me instead. I would've almost thought he was a gentleman and have second thoughts about him, unless—

Yoko Kurama straightened his back, his tail twitched again in annoyance and threw the demon a mocking smile.

"Nobody touches my jewels," he said, in a deep, soft and very deadly voice.

It took me only a moment to realize what he meant. I wanted to hit him more than I wanted to hit anybody else in my entire 400-year-old life, but I refrained myself because it would've been unladylike. Instead, I shot him the dirtiest, most disgusted look I could muster.

He even had the nerve to turn around and give me a triumphant grin.

My face contorted in dislike, and I bit my tongue not to say anything, I decided to deal with him later. Demon stupidity wasn't on top of my list of priorities. I pushed him aside and started walking toward the demon again. I was fully concentrating now. I was ready for whatever surprise attack he threw at me, I didn't need anybody's help, least of all _his._

And he didn't disappoint. He shot another fire blast at me. This time I was prepared. I simply continued walking, seemingly un-phased. Now that I was concentrating, I had more than enough time to push Yoko Kurama aside – this time rather roughly, since he didn't understand the first time – and defend myself. I conjured a powerful wind with the simple trigger of my thought that completely extinguished the fire in less time that it took me to blink.

I grinned. If I did this right, he didn't have a chance. But I didn't have time to be cocky.

"The fight isn't over yet. There is no time to be so confident," the demon smiled and I know that shock registered in my face automatically. I knew my emotions played across my face because of the flash tattoos, but how did _he_ know about them? And how did he know what they meant?

I groaned in frustration. Another complication added to my list. If he knew what the flash tattoos meant, he could get a very good idea of how I was feeling. But there was no way for him to know what I was thinking. He was bluffing, trying to scare me into submission. Whoever this demon was, he obviously didn't know much about me.

I let myself grin again and I knew that my irises became their normal shape again. I knew he was powerful, so I wasn't going to take him easy. We already had a plan of attack in mind. But I had to try something on my own too, first.

So I started running, picking up speed with every step that I took, and when I was close enough to him – almost dangerously close, being unarmed – I jumped, conjured the sword that Koenma had given me, combined it with my power to control the wind and slashed him faster than he could blink.

I was at a few feet away from him when I landed, and turned around to see if my plan worked. I knew that my sword didn't do any external damage, mainly because it wasn't supposed to this time. But I knew that it did some internal damage. Since I combined it with my wind power, hopefully, it extinguished some of the fire he had stored up inside. It was like I conjured a tornado close to a forest burning.

The demon sat motionless, and I saw small puffs of smoke coming out of random spots on his body. But that didn't last long. The next thing I knew, he shook his body just like a wet dog would and grinned.

"Ah, you almost got me. That was actually a powerful attack. But now I'm not playing around anymore," he said and his face, although still smiling, darkened. Any trace of smoke disappeared and his entire body burst in a flame so powerful that it raised up about 40 feet in the air, the demon sitting at the very core of the fire. It was so powerful, I had to jump back few dozen feet so that the heat wouldn't overwhelm me.

Then he turned around toward the rest of the team. "Now it's my turn." I knew that was our signal. We couldn't postpone this any longer. Just as he was accessing his Spirit Energy, I raised my hand in the air and gave them a thumbs up, hoping they understood what that meant. Without checking if they did, I summoned Sasha.

High in the air as if she was coming down from the heavens, I saw a faint outline, growing darker and starting to be colored in, a powerful wind enveloping her as she fed off of my Spirit Energy. I almost smiled at the sight of her, in solid form, her body stretching beautifully as she ran at full speed. I missed hear dearly. It's not very often that I ask for her help.

Her body started glowing light blue as I was giving her my entire Spirit Energy so that she uses it as she pleases. She plunged for the demon at the exact moment Yusuke fired up his Spirit Gun, Kuwabara charged at him with his sword, Hiei's Dragon of the Darkness Flame reached him and Yoko Kurama's deadly plants spring from beneath him.

We were all perfectly in sync and I watched, fascinated, as the union of all our powers created a fusion of energies, a powerful, blinding white light and then a powerful explosion. I had to shield my eyes with my hand and take a few steps back. When I thought it was safe, I opened them, and I gasped. Where the demon stood, there was a huge crater, probably about 20 feet deep and double that in width. Black smoke came out of its center, where there stood…nothing.

This time, I knew we really defeated him. There was absolutely no way for him to have blocked or dodged all that, because the attacks were too quick, too…to the last minute. Not to mention that out of all the attacks, the Dragon of the Darkness Flame was unbeatable and unblock-able.

I exhaled sharply, realizing I've been holding my breath and I actually grinned at the rest of them. Yusuke actually yelled, "In your face, asshole!" at the top of his lungs at the sky and I laughed out loud at his – as Iris would put – goofball-ness. Kuwabara punched the air in victory and even Hiei showed the hint of a triumphant smile.

I didn't even see Yoko Kurama until he was right beside me. "That was amazing," he whispered softly in my ear. I whirled around, and, remembering his previous remark, glared at him. I took a few steps back to put some distance between us.

"Ooh, feisty," he chucked under his breath, as if I just did something adorable. I kept my disgust to myself and tried to walk away, turn back into Iris and get away from this slime, but before I could even talk to her, he _put his arm around me_. "Where are you going? Aren't you staying for the victory party?"

I slapped his hand away. "Not unless _you're_ staying," I shot at him.

He chuckled again and stepped closer. "Fiery," he commented appraisingly.

I didn't know what to get out of all this. I glared at him, feeling my face getting hot with anger and embarrassment, mainly because everybody was watching this little scene. What made me even more uncomfortable is that my flash tattoos were probably spinning wildly on my face.

Iris on the other hand was dumbstruck. _He's totally coming on to you!_ She said, and I realized she was right, but I didn't comment any further, and neither did she.

For the third time, he stepped closer, and attempted to put his hand under my chin to draw it out. I grabbed his wrist, and held it with as much strength as I could. I even accessed some left-over Spirit Energy and made my grip considerably stronger. I heard a bone crack, but I didn't care. His golden gaze seemed unphased, as well as his crooked grin. "Keep your hands to yourself," I spit at him, and threw his hand away.

And before he had time to do anything else, I said to Iris, _Let's change back,_ and we did, in the same manner like we did before as a powerful wind enveloped me. Even as I began to lose control of the body as Iris came back in the picture and took over, I heard soft laughter in the background, along with a soft "Hard to get." Before I knew it, I was once again in the back of Iris's mind, and, for the first time maybe, I felt relieved.

Through Iris's eyes, I saw him rubbing his wrist absentmindedly. Then, as he looked into her eyes, which almost felt like my eyes for a second, he said, "We'll meet again. I always get what I want." I snarled at him, but now it was completely pointless since he couldn't hear me and I tried to calm down.

I was right about him after all.


End file.
